The Mind of a Madman
by Nimrodel 101
Summary: The Tardis sends the Doctor into the Avengers' Compound shortly after Tony returns from Titan. Will the Doctor help them or leave the universe to its fate?


**A/N: This is what happens when I'm in the middle of writing Avengers fanfiction and I watch the Doctor Who episode "The Rings of Akhaten." I'm sure I'm not the first one to do this, but I wanted to write my own.**

**Also, I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, so yeah. Procrastination.**

—

The Doctor stepped onto the Tardis. He was excited to see what the old girl had in store for him next.

One moment he was flying blindly, and the next he learned that he had landed on Earth. Again.

He shrugged. "Alright, old girl. If I'm needed here, I suppose I could take a look."

He opened the door and found himself in a closet. On the other side of the door, he heard raised voices.

He shrugged and let himself out of the closet. Saving the universe _was_ his specialty, after all.

The Doctor took in the scene. There was a frail man in a wheelchair hooked up to an IV, two blonde women with their arms crossed, two muscular blonde men, defeat evident in their postures, and a raccoon. Not the most unusual thing he'd ever seen in his travels.

"What happened here?" he asked the room, seeing who would respond first.

"Who are you?" The frail man asked, pointing at him and attempting to stand.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Sure, like that explains everything. Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man demanded, standing up, his clearly weak legs shaking.

"I already told you, I'm the Doctor. As for what I'm doing here, I have no idea. Sometimes the old girl just gets a mind of her own and takes me where I'm most needed," he responded dismissively. "I'll ask you again: what happened here?"

"Thanos. Thanos happened," the blonde man who was standing said.

"Who's Thanos?"

"A madman. The Mad Titan. He did exactly what he said he was going to do, he wiped out fifty percent of all living things," one of the blonde women said.

"How did he accomplish that?"

"He gathered all six infinity stones and poof! All gone!" The frail man yelled, barely containing his rage.

"What kind of idiot has not heard of Thanos?" The raccoon demanded, standing up.

"Well it's been a long day, and I just jumped from another universe, so yeah," the Doctor said.

A blue robot woman strode into the room and immediately aimed her pistol at him.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

The Doctor squinted his eyes and looked closer at her and asked, "Amelia?"

"Your name is Amelia?" The robot woman asked.

"No, no of course not! I'm the Doctor!"

"Why did you say your name was Amelia?"

"My name is not Amelia. You look like someone I used to know."

"Okay," she said, shrugging, "Who's the idiot?" she asked the rest.

"We don't know yet," the standing blonde man replied, "he just sort of showed up."

"I told you, I'm the Doctor."

"And…?"

"And I'm here to help you."

"How?" The man in the wheelchair demanded.

"I'm going to use my box to see if there is anything that I can possibly do and I'm going to do it if I can."

"Box?" The blonde man asked, "What good is a box going to do?"

The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "It's also a time machine and a spaceship."

The blonde man nodded slowly, seeming to try to get it into his head. "Alright. At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me."

—

The Doctor stepped out of his box, sadness and grief evident in his features.

"So? Is there a way?" Tony demanded, leaning forward in his chair.

"There is," the Doctor said.

"And.."

"And I'm not going to tell you."

"Why not?" Tony demanded, standing up.

"Because if I do, it will not happen."

"What?!"

"Time is a tricky thing, even for a Time Lord. I'm sorry. If I told everyone what was going to happen in their lives, they would either try to make it happen or try to make it not happen. What actually happens is usually much worse than the thing they were trying to make happen or trying to not make happen in the first place, causing trouble. And I don't want to cause trouble."

"But-"

"Tony, give it a rest," Steve said, holding him back, "if he can't tell us or do anything to help us, that must mean that we will be able to solve this on our own, without his help."

"I'm sorry, but did you say _we_? There's no _we_ here."

"Tony, I'm going to need you to focus."

"And I _needed_ you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy."

The Doctor took that moment to back out. The Avengers, as he had learned they were called from the Tardis, would be fine. Eventually, that was.

He had seen what was to come for them: he saw Tony live his life with his wife and daughter. He saw Steve counsel others on how to move on. He had seen Natasha never give up, staying in a state of child-like hopefulness. He had seen Bruce try to find a way to continue living. He had seen Thor ignore his pain and drown his sorrows. He had seen Clint completely despair.

But through it all, he saw a glimmer of true hope.

He saw them find it, harness it, and use it. He had seen them fight.

And he had seen Tony lay down his life.

He had seen it all. He had walked in it all.

—

**_5 Years Later _**

Steve looked up from his fallen friend, tears streaming down his cheeks. Tony's death was sudden and hard, but happened with so much love. Love for the universe, but more importantly, for the Avengers, humanity, Pepper, and Morgan.

Tony had died out of love.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw a familiar blue box with a silent and still figure standing in front of it.

It was the Doctor, looking exactly as he had the day that they had met, five years ago.

Steve nodded at him, and the Doctor nodded back. And that was that.

No words needed to be said.

—

_"__I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things that you will never understand. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. So come on, then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!"_

_—_

**A/N: Make sure to leave a review! **

**For context about Doctor Who copy and paste this into YouTube:**

Speech to Akhaten | The Rings of Akhaten | Doctor Who

**Or just watch Doctor Who.**


End file.
